Plot Summary

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The great Chicago White Sox team of 1919 is the saddest team to ever win a pennant. The team is bitter at their penny pincher owner, Charles Comiskey, and at their own teammates. Gamblers take advantage of this opportunity to offer some players money to throw the series. (Most of the players didn't get as much as promised.) But Buck Weaver and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson turn back at the last minute and try to play their best. The Sox actually almost come back from a 3-1 deficit. Two years later, the truth breaks out and the Sox are sued on multiple counts. They are found innocent by the jury but baseball commissioner Landis has other plans. The eight players are suspended for life, and Buck Weaver, for the rest of his life, tries to clear his name.

Eight Men Out tells the true story of the infamous 'Black Sox' scandal of 1919, in which the White Sox players deliberately lost the World Series. The movie places the scandal in the context of a labor dispute between the players and their then all-powerful team owner, and how mobster Arnold Rothstein took advantage of the dispute. The result was a human tragedy for players like "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

In 1919 gambler Arnold Rothstein bribes disgruntled members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series against Cincinnati. The Sox were considered the better team and their loss, particularly in the early games, raises eyebrows. In fact, some of the blown plays are a little to obvious. Many of the players are conflicted by what they have done and some decide to do their best towards the end of the series to win. In the end they lose and for two years, their secret is safe but when two of them confess, it leads to a trial. Although found not guilty, all eight players were banned for by the newly appointed independent baseball Commissioner, Judge Landis.